25 Replies - 1553 Views - Last Post: 19 September 2011 - 01:02 PM

Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 17 September 2011 - 04:21 AM

I'm trying to acquire a domain name for myself, but I'm having trouble contacting the owners, as they've done a private registration and the WHOIS private registrar person who I'm trying to contact is not responding. The website itself doesn't seem to be used, even though WHOIS says it's active. It also gets very little traffic as well(like 500 people or less, and it's not constant traffic). The company(private registrar) is continually suggesting I use their certified offer to get a response from the owners, but I'm wondering whether they just want me to spend my money for nothing (if it's so hard to get in touch with the private registrar-who is employed by the company asking me to use the certified offer- already, what makes them assume that I'll have better luck using their certified offer)

The questions I have are this:
1) what's the best way to get into contact with the domain owners themselves if emailing and phoning the company who has done the private registration is not working?
2) If the only way to purchase the domain is to make a certified offer, what's the best web tool to evaluate the worth of a website? (I've tried cubestat, but any other suggestions that also take into consideration the length of the domain and other evaluation methods will help as well) **(The reason I ask is because cubestat says the website isn't worth much, but the registrar company has a tool that valuates the domain at over $25,000)
3) Any other suggestions on how to go about doing this will be greatly appreciated.

*PS. I won't be sharing the domain name, so please don't post a response asking about it. This question has also been posted on another Q&A forum, but because it's more of a general forum, the responses aren't that good.

Replies To: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 09:22 AM

Well, without the name of the site, none of us here can do more than suggest generalities for finding that info. Are you afraid someone here will swoop in and buy the domain out from under you? I wouldn't be too concerned about that but you can decide to keep that info confidential.

Anyway, not sure what more you CAN do since you apparently have the whois info and know who the registrar is. They don't HAVE to respond to your inquiries but any whois listing should have an administrative contact and a technical contact. I'd try both of them as well, explain your situation and see if they have additional or unpublished contact info they'd be willing to share with you.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 09:43 AM

That's pretty much your only option. They beat you to it, and it sounds like they're not interested in selling it to you, or their contact info is not current at the registrar. Set a reminder in google calendar or something to ping you when the domain's about to expire, and see if they renew or not.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 09:51 AM

On the plus side, this thread prompted me to look at my own domain registration and I discovered that it's about to expire come November...so I placed a call to my hosting folk and asked if they provide domain registration services and they do (although they don't advertise such).

So now I've arranged to have all my site hosting stuff (server, domain registration, certs) all with one company. Costs about $6 a year more for it all...but now I have only one call to make to handle all my site issues. Handy!

Oh...there are services on the web that will watch domains for you and notify you if they're about to lapse. This one, for instance. However, there you're telling someone else the domain name you're watching so if you're paranoid about such things...maybe that's not for you.

Here is a good article on how to get an expired domain. It's not as straightforward as it seems.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

All I know is march of next year I have a date with snatching up a domain name. Thankfully the owner left is information all over the site and I may send the brute squad to pay him a visit, with a lovely gift basket of sandwiches! Of course I've seen people putting up their names for sale so that's an option.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 10:06 AM

I thought i'd keep you guys updated, so that the situation and progress doesn't go stale. I googled a phone directory and found a company that I thought may own the domain name. I spoke to two ladies, and even after being polite and therafter inquiring about purchasing the domain, I think the lady just slammed the phone down (awkward) . I'm bent on purchasing this domain name, and if you guys have other "out of the box" suggestions, please share them.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 10:41 AM

I didn't get a chance to confirm anything. The owners of the domain are some type of correctional facility, so I could imagine that everyday is a shit day for them, but I'll worm my way to the right company and find some Scofield sympathizer who will help me(joke!) . I know that domains can be valuable, but how can every single domain have that much value? it's like saying the swamp and the Hamptons are equally valuable.

Email does seem to work better in today's world also, as phoning to America can be quite a snag, especially when their 10am is my 6pm.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 10:58 AM

haha that's an idea. But I doubt that'll work. I'll probably squash the idea if I'm unable to convince them in a professional manner. I made the mistake of drafting an entire concept around the domain without querying whether I could acquire it(noob mistake for a startup guy like myself) . The actual domain wouldn't have mattered, except for the fact that the domain itself would be a vital marketing tool.

This is one of those moments where you get that shit feeling all over and realize that your plans may not sync with the universe (but I haven't given up yet. One phone call to possibly the wrong company shouldn't stop me or my sympathizers- ie. you two kind fellows) .

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

I know that domains can be valuable, but how can every single domain have that much value? it's like saying the swamp and the Hamptons are equally valuable.

Who ever said anything about that? It's the opposite of reality. Some domains are worth more than others. The man named Kerry Edwards found that out back in 2004.

The problem is, owned domains typically have more value than unowned ones, because the people that registered them did so for a reason. Now you have to convince them (with money) that your reasons are better than theirs.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 11:33 AM

HSS_CS, on 19 September 2011 - 01:58 PM, said:

I made the mistake of drafting an entire concept around the domain without querying whether I could acquire it(noob mistake for a startup guy like myself) . The actual domain wouldn't have mattered, except for the fact that the domain itself would be a vital marketing tool.

Without divulging the domain name you're trying to acquire (although, truly, I doubt anyone here would try and undercut you and go out and grab it) what is it your concept will do?

I ask because when I came up with my "big idea" I took an awful long time trying to come up with a domain name that fit. All the ones I wanted were taken (the best one has been sat on by some asshole in Finland since 2003 who's literally never brought up a site with the domain name he's squatting on) so I had to brainstorm an alternative domain name. Maybe rather than spend the time and money to try and acquire what you think is the perfect name for your site...maybe you should look at alternative names instead.

Re: Purchasing a privately registered domain name?

Posted 19 September 2011 - 11:40 AM

Also, now that we have TLDs available for so many countries, people are using "cutesy" domain names, like del.icio.us, eho.st, bit.ly, goo.gl, youtu.be, redd.it, etc...perhaps consider using something like that.